Sheriff's Visit Helps Secure City Contract

DANIA BEACH — Since March, when C.K. McElyea took over as mayor, it has been his dream to meet with Sheriff Ken Jenne to discuss crime in the city.

He announced it at commission meetings and sent Jenne messages. But nothing ever happened.

Last week, however, Jenne had to rush to City Hall to talk to McElyea and try to salvage the $5.2 million police contract that the Sheriff's Office has with the city.

Jenne's impromptu visit stemmed from McElyea's attempt to order a feasibility study that would have looked into the possibility of Dania Beach creating its own police department.

"He was concerned about losing the contract," McElyea said. "He didn't know what I was thinking."

The encounter occurred after McElyea complained about the way a deputy had handled an incident involving him and his daughter, Cari Kresa, who wanted to evict a tenant from a rental property without a court order.

McElyea would not provide details about what was discussed in the meeting, which City Manager Mike Smith and Chief Robert Anton of the Sheriff's District 2 in Dania Beach also attended.

However, McElyea said he is opposed to what he calls the Sheriff's Office's practice of removing deputies from the district two or three years after they begin patrolling the city.

He said he wants deputies to work longer in the community so they can build a stronger relationship with residents and be able to identify problem areas and criminals. He cautioned he can't tell Jenne what to do, but he wants the Sheriff's Office to concentrate more on combating drugs and prostitution in Dania Beach.

"I'd want the people here to have what they are paying for," he said. "I'd like to see more people who live here and patrol our city. Some of them don't live here, and they don't care."

One day after Jenne's encounter with McElyea, Smith announced that the city would open a police substation in a trailer at Charlie Will Thomas Park.

The intersection at Northwest Eighth Avenue and First Street near the park is known by residents and city officials as the city's hottest spot for drug sales.

Commissioners Jim Cali and Bob Mikes and Vice Mayor John Bertino, among other officials, said the decision to open the substation in the city's northwest section was planned months before the McElyea-Jenne meeting.

City officials said the substation would help curtail drug activities. And they said the move would improve the relationship between residents and deputies.

"I think it's a good idea," Cali said, adding that with community policing, "there need to be officers where the community is. It has been tried in other places, and it works."

The McElyea controversy came up a week after Oakland Park merged its police force with the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office, which is being aggressive about merging with city police forces, also is reportedly exploring the possibility of taking over the Hallandale Beach Police Department.

McElyea backed off on his proposal to can the Sheriff's Office, which he had intended to discuss at the June 27 commission meeting. He said staff made a mistake in the way they wrote the police-issue item on the meeting agenda.

Regardless, McElyea would not have been able to have the city revert to a city-police force unless two other commissioners backed the idea.

Mikes said he would only support a performance study that would enlighten commissioners on how the Sheriff's Office can improve the services it has been providing in Dania Beach. Bertino and Cali said a city-operated police department is not the right thing for Dania Beach because it would be too costly.

"I think it would be a mistake to have a city police department," Cali said. "They could have a police department, but the result would be a reduced level of services."